Formula One racing

A Formula One race or Grand Prix is a sporting event which takes place over three days (usually Friday to Sunday), with a series of practice and qualifying sessions prior to a race on Sunday.

Current regulations provide for two free practice sessions on Friday, a morning practice session and an afternoon qualifying session held on Saturday, and the race held on Sunday afternoon or evening, though the structure of the weekend has changed numerous times over the history of the sport.

At most Formula One race weekends, other events such as races in other FIA series (such as the GP2 Series) are staged.

Since 2006, three practice sessions are held before the race; the first on Friday morning and the second on Friday afternoon. Both sessions last one and a half hours. The third session is held on Saturday morning and lasts an hour. A third driver is permitted to take part in the Friday free practice sessions in the place of a regular driver. With testing in the middle of the season banned, many teams will nominate their third driver to take part in the first session. The Monaco Grand Prix traditionally begins on a Thursday, with Friday as a day of rest. Practice sessions for the Singapore and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix take place in the evening as these races are run at night.

Traditionally before 1996, qualifying was split into two one-hour sessions; the first was held on Friday (Thursday at Monaco) afternoon from 13:00 to 14:00 local time, with the second held on Saturday afternoon at the same time. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards his final grid position. Each driver was limited to twelve laps per qualifying session.

In 1996 qualifying was amended with the Friday qualifying session abolished in a favour for a single qualifying session held on Saturday afternoon. As previously, each driver was limited to twelve laps with the inclusion of a 107% rule to exclude drivers with slow lap times. This was calculated by using the time of the driver on pole position and adding on 7% to create a cut-off time. This format remained until the conclusion of the 2002 season.

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